


Do you believe?

by Filthyfilterxo



Category: BLACKPINK (Band), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alzheimer's Disease, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dark Fantasy, Darkness, Death, Dementia, Dreams vs. Reality, Erotic Horror, Erotica, F/M, Halloween, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Legends and Myths, Not Cheating, Paralysis, Sleep Paralysis, Watching Someone Sleep, Witch Curses, Witchcraft, Witches, lost souls - Freeform, romania - Freeform, scary story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 05:11:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 22,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20688053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Filthyfilterxo/pseuds/Filthyfilterxo
Summary: A gypsy told Jungkook how to save his wife. So he sets out to find a witch.





	Do you believe?

**Author's Note:**

> I made my own "inktober" for Halloween specials. So this begins with -Witch- .

'Welcome to Transylvania! Vampires, Werewolves, Witches and Ghosts -- do you believe?'

Jungkook still remembered the poster with those exact words written on it, printed in ghoulish blue letters on an ominous black background. The poster was the first thing he noticed as he exited the plane and set foot on Transylvanian soil for the first time. Did he believe? Well, he certainly didn't believe in vampires or werewolves. And witches? He guessed he wouldn't have flown twenty-three hours across Europe on a last-minute flight to the other side of the continent if he didn't at least believe in their possibility. But ghosts? He had always believed in ghosts.

Jungkook was two years old when his father died. His mother, haunted by the memory of him, decided that she could no longer stay in the home they'd shared, so she took Jungkook’s older sister and himself with her to live in an old two-story house that she'd rented on the outskirts of town. She'd went there hoping to come to terms with her sorrow, but with two children that she now had to raise on her own she had little time to mourn. She had her hands full getting his sister ready for first grade and, of course, taking care of him. Jungkook was too young to remember, but she told him that he never stopped talking; even after she'd put him to bed; he wouldn't shut up. She'd sit downstairs in the living room, drinking her evening tea, and smile as she listened to the baby monitor and heard him babbling away, having long, animated conversations with himself, all alone in the darkness of his upstairs bedroom. She never thought anything of it until Jungkook started going to playschool. The teacher had told his class to draw a picture of their family and Jungkook drew his mother, his sister, himself and a boy with bright red hair. When his mother came to pick him up and saw the drawing on the classroom wall, she asked him if that was supposed to be his father, who'd had black hair. Jungkook told her no, it was his best friend. Assuming he meant someone in his class, she smiled as she looked around at the other boys and asked him which one he was. But Jungkook told her his friend didn't go to school -- he lived in his bedroom. Jungkook’s teacher told her not to be worried; it was common for children to have imaginary friends. But his mother told him later the drawing had sent a chill down her spine. She'd always felt an unease about the upstairs room, and didn't like going up there alone, but had tried to convince herself it was only her imagination. That evening she let him sleep downstairs in her bed with her, but when she woke up in the dead of night he was gone. And then she heard Jungkook in the upstairs bedroom -- laughing as if he was playing with someone. 

The next night she made Jungkook sleep in her bed again and told him that he was not, under any circumstances, to go to the upstairs bedroom. When she woke in the middle of the night she was relieved to find him still sleeping beside her. But then she noticed something else -- smoke. By the time the fire engines arrived the house was engulfed in flames. Jungkook’s mother, his sister and himself had all got out in time and were huddled together across the street in their nightclothes as they watched the firemen throwing out hoses to battle the blaze that was devouring their home. As they watched the hungry flames lick out of the doorway and shattered windows, a fireman came frantically running toward them. His eyes wide with alarm, he cried, "How many more children are in the house?!"

Jungkook’s mother blinked in surprise and said none; all of them had safely escaped.

He glanced back at the dying house, and then said, "But what about the boy? The boy with the red hair in the upstairs window!"

When the sun rose the next morning there was nothing left of the house but charred timbers, blackened bones of the home that had once been there. They went to live in a small, two-bedroom apartment, but Jungkook’s mother couldn't stop thinking of the house, couldn't stop thinking of that upstairs bedroom. A family friend told her she should see a psychic and his mother, desperate for peace of mind, finally agreed. And the psychic, who knew nothing of the fire, took one look at his mother's palm and told her that a restless spirit was searching for her -- a spirit in the form of a boy. Jungkook’s mother was terrified. She'd never believed in psychics before, but now she was begging this one to tell her what to do. And she told his mother that she had to flee, and that only a large body of water could prevent the ghost from following them. She didn't tell him that story until he was a teenager. He doesn’t remember the red-haired boy. Jungkook barely even remembered the house. But listening to her tell that story, hearing the tremble in her voice and seeing the fear in her eyes...Jungkook guessed that's why he’s always believed in ghosts.

After getting off the plane in late October, he traveled to the city of Brasov by rail. The train was packed with tourists on their annual pilgrimage to Brasov and a site sacred to all horror film fans and Halloween aficionados -- Dracula's castle. Of course, the castle didn't really belong to Dracula. Its true name is Bran Castle and it's a national monument and landmark in Romania. However, it's marketed as having once been the famous fictional vampire's home. There's no evidence that Bram Stoker knew anything about the castle when he researched his story (without ever having left England), but that hasn't stopped more than half a million fans from around the world from flocking to it every year. But Jungkook wasn't headed to Brasov to find a vampire; he was going there to find a witch. His problem, though, was that he had no idea where to start looking. The gypsy woman had told him the witch's name, but other than that he had nothing and, honestly, like he thought before, he wasn't sure if he even believed in witches. But now, with his wife's very life at stake, he knew he had no choice other than to believe.

Jungkook stepped off the train and stared around the station as a flood of tourists washed past him, murmuring with excitement at the realization that they were about to spend Halloween in Transylvania. And the city was ready for them. Romanians had come to rely on tourism for money after the fall of communism, and the people of Brasov were no exception. The station was full of vendors hawking Dracula-related merchandise and sightseeing companies pushing Halloween parties and tours. Jungkook passed by them, ignoring their sales pitches and brochures. He had no interest in Halloween; he needed to find a witch. But as Jungkook hurried through the crowded station, a voice rose above the din.

"Come see the real Transylvania! Journey through the dark woods and across the mystical mountains that have inspired the legends! Starting in the scenic village of Magura -- "

The name cut through the clamor like a knife. Jungkook pushes his way past a girl carrying a backpack two sizes too large for her and found the man he had heard.

"Excuse me," he said. "Did you say your tour starts in Magura?"

"Yes," he said in thickly accented English, as he eagerly handed him a brochure with a giant brown bear on the cover. "The tour starts in the beautiful village of Magura. From there we..."

Jungkook didn't hear what he said next. He barely heard anything after the word Magura. He had never even heard of the town until one day earlier, when the gypsy woman had told him the witch he was seeking would be found there. But now he knew it was the one place in the world he had to be. "I'll take it," Jungkook said, interrupting him. "I'll take the tour."

"That is wonderful," he said, beaming with surprise at his enthusiasm. "There is a map to Magura on the back of the brochure. The tour starts tomorrow at ten and -- "

"No!" Jungkook said, cutting him off a second time. "I need to get to Magura today. I want to start the tour now."

He smiled and shook his head. "I'm afraid that is impossible. It is already too late in the day, and there are still three more spots on tomorrow's tour that I need to fill."

Jungkook pulled out his wallet. "How much is it?"

"The tour? It is 200 lei, but that includes -- "

Jungkook held up his hand, he didn't need his spiel. "How much is that in Korean Won?"

He did a quick mental calculation. "About fifty-five two hundred sixty and twenty nine korean won."

Jungkook pulled the correct amount of bills out of his wallet and pushed them into his hand. "There, I'll book the whole tour. Can we leave now?"

He blinked in surprise at the money and hesitated for a second, as if he was about to refuse it. But then he quickly nodded and stuffed the bills into his pocket. "Of course, we can leave immediately. Do you have luggage?"

Jungkook hefted the small carry-on, all that he had packed for the last minute flight, and showed it to him.

With a surprised look, he said, "That is all that you have brought?"

Jungkook nodded. "It's all I'll need."

He introduced himself as Namjoon, and it wasn't long before they were in his small red car, driving through the narrow, cobblestoned streets of Brasov on their way out of the city. As he drove, he said, "Pardon me for asking, but why are you so anxious to get to Magura?"

"I need to find someone there."

He shrugged his shoulders. "I am not complaining, but fifty-five two hundred sixty and twenty nine korean won is a lot of money. You could have taken a taxi there for a fraction of that."

"I don't just need you to get me to Magura. There's something I need you to help me with once we get there."

He glanced over at Jungkook. "Help you? Help you with what?"

Jungkook nervously twisted his wedding ring, wondering how much he could say without sounding completely crazy. Finally, he just said it. "I need you to help me find a witch."

Namjoon burst into laughter. "A witch? That is why you are in such a rush to get to Magura -- to find a witch?"

"Please," Jungkook said, desperate to convince him he wasn't like the others who came to Transylvania, chasing after stories spawned in the imaginations of second-rate writers and wishing they were true. "This witch is real. You have to believe me!"

He put up his hand, fighting to control his laughter. "Please do not misunderstand me. I simply meant that if you wish to find a witch, you do not have to travel all the way to Magura."

"Then you...you really do believe me? You believe that witches are real?" Jungkook asked.

"Of course," he said, pointing out the window. "There's one right there!"

Jungkook glanced toward the sidewalk, where a small kiosk was loaded with Dracula-themed t-shirts, mugs, key rings and postcards. Walking past it was a laughing, dark-haired girl in a sexy witch costume, complete with a short skirt, striped leggings and a black, pointy hat. Her boyfriend was walking beside her, and as he caught him gawking at her from the car window he glared back at Jungkook.

"Not her," Namjoon said with a laugh. "There!"

Jungkook looked toward where he was pointing and just past the kiosk, below a large billboard offering guided tours of Dracula's castle, there was a yellow door with a red eye painted on it.

"I don't understand," Jungkook said. "What is it?"

"That is where the witch is. That is her shop."

"Her shop? Wait -- you're actually telling me there's a real witch inside there?!"

"Of course," he said, as he parked the car. "Romania is full of witches. But they are not like the witches in your Korean movies. They do not fly around on broomsticks. They are more like...fortune tellers. But if you are lucky you might find one who can cast a spell or remove a curse for you," he added with a wink.

The tall, brightly-painted medieval buildings that lined both sides of the narrow cobblestoned street were packed tightly together, blocking out the late afternoon sun and cloaking the sidewalks in shadows. In the distance, a faint peal of bells echoed from a church. Jungkook approached the door to the witch's shop and couldn't help noticing the cracked and peeling paint, and the small sign in the velvet-curtained window that let him know she accepted both Visa and MasterCard.

Jungkook turned to Namjoon, and said, "But the witch I'm looking for...I was told I'd find her in Magura."

Namjoon shook his head. "I have lived there all my life. Trust me -- there are no witches in Magura. But this witch, Lalisa, she knows all of the other women who practice her craft. If the witch you are seeking is anywhere in Transylvania, she will know where to find her."

Namjoon and Jungkook went inside and a woman with dark hair greeted them. She wore a low-cut black gypsy dress that showed off her cleavage, barely concealed by a thick golden necklace of moons and stars. Namjoon spoke a few words to her in Romanian and she smiled and nodded in understanding.

She waved her hand toward a table, covered in the accoutrements of her trade, and invited Jungkook to sit down. As he did, she clasped both his hands comfortingly in hers and said in heavily-accented English, "I am sure I will be able to perform any service you require -- and very affordably, might I add -- but tell me, who is this witch that you think you must find?"

Jungkook had written down the name as soon as the gypsy woman had told it to him, to make sure he would remember it. But he hadn't forgotten it; the name was seared into his memory. He took a deep breath, and said, "Hecate Agnes."

As soon as Jungkook spoke the name, the witch's pleasant visage twisted into a mask of fear. She jerked her hands away from his as if suddenly realizing he had the plague. Just as quickly she recovered, smoothing her dress down as she forced a smile and said, "You are mistaken. There is no witch in Transylvania by that name."

"Please," Jungkook said, digging in his wallet for the piece of paper with her name on it to make sure he had pronounced it right. "I was told I'd find her in Magura, and her name is Hec -- "

She slammed her palm against the table to silence him. "Never speak that name again in my house!" she shrieked.

Jungkook looked at Namjoon, and saw he was just as bewildered as he was. Reaching into his wallet, he pulled out a few bills and tried to hand it to her. "Please, you obviously know -- "

"Get out!" she screamed, waving his money away as if it were cursed. "Get out of my house!"

Namjoon and Jungkook stumbled back out onto the sidewalk as she slammed the door in their face and bolted it shut.

"I am so sorry," he said. "Witches always act strangely, but I have never seen anything like that! Did you want to see if I can find another witch in Brasov? Maybe she will know the woman you seek."

"No," Jungkook said, shaking his head. "I think we should continue on to Magura."

The witch hadn't told him anything, but her reaction had. Ever since the moment Jungkook decided to leave his dying wife's side and fly to Romania he had been tormented by the fear that he was making a huge mistake. Her mother and his sister had begged him not to go, told him that he had to be losing his sanity if he believed the ravings of an old gypsy. They pleaded with him to stay, so he could be with his wife when the end came. But Jungkook refused to just wait helplessly by her side, waiting for her life to be over, because there was something that neither his sister nor his mother-in-law knew, something else that the old gypsy had whispered to him. A secret from his past that told him what she said was true. And now Jungkook knew that the witch he was hunting was real. The violent response that just the mention of her name had provoked had confirmed it for him. But as they drove away from the other witch's shop, the closed sign now hanging in her window, Jungkook remembered the look of fear on her face and worried if he’d found Hecate Agnes, just how dear the price for her aid would be.

* * *

Magura was less than half an hour away, and as they neared the rustic village he felt as if he was entering a hinterland between folklore and reality. The picturesque landscape was a scattered collection of cottages and tumbledown barns, with haystacks dotting the nearby mountain meadows before they gave way to the dark forests and brooding mountains that surrounded the remote hamlet. A narrow road wound through the village, and as they followed it a horse-drawn cart rattled past in the opposite direction. Namjoon gave the driver a friendly wave and then pointed toward a small two-story cottage in the distance with wood smoke drifting lazily from the chimney.

"This is my house," he said. "But I am afraid that it is too late in the day to start the tour. Have you made any plans?"

"Plans?" Jungkook said, echoing him.

"Plans for where you will stay while you are...looking for your witch."

Jungkook shook his head. He didn't have any plans for where he was going to stay. As a matter of fact, he didn't have any plan at all. The gypsy had told him to travel to the village of Magura and that was what he had done. But she'd also told him to find the witch Hecate Agnes and, now that he was here, he realized that wasn't going to be as easy as it seemed.

Jungkook was still rattled by the frightened reaction to her name in Brasov. And this village was tiny and Namjoon, who'd lived here his whole life, had never heard her name before. Jungkook had no idea who -- or what -- he was looking for, and the weight of nearly twenty-four hours without sleep was starting to bear down on him. As much as he didn't want to, he knew he would have to wait until tomorrow to continue his hunt for the witch he had traveled to Transylvania to find.

"Is there a lodge or some kind of B&B here?" Jungkook asked, turning to look at the cottages that dotted the small village.

"There are...but the reason I asked whether you had made plans," Namjoon said, "is because I do have a small guest room in my house that is available for the night. And of course there will be breakfast in the morning. It is nothing fancy, but -- "

Jungkook held up his hand to cut him off. "I'll take it. I don't need fancy."

"Wonderful!" he said, and turned the small car into his dirt driveway. Once they were parked, he grabbed Jungkook’s duffel bag and gestured for Jungkook to follow him inside.

Jungkook entered the cottage and felt like he had stepped into a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Stout oak beams underpinned the ceiling while rough plaster lined the walls, and an ancient wood stove filled the room with comforting warmth. As he ducked through the doorway, Jungkook couldn't help noticing a dried bunch of garlic nailed above it.

There were two women in the room, one young and one old. Both of them happily welcomed Namjoon home and, when they noticed Jungkook behind him, they nodded in greeting.

"This is my bunica, my grandmother," he said. "She lives with me. And this is my neighbor, Jisoo. She has been keeping my bunica company while I have been working on my tour business. It is actually very new and I am afraid that, other than you, I have not had any customers. It seems that tourists are far more interested in seeing the fictional Transylvania than the real one."

Jungkook said hello to Jisoo and she bowed politely. She was dark-haired, in her mid-twenties, and beautiful. Namjoon then introduced Jungkook to his grandmother and she nodded and said something in Romanian to him.

"She is glad to meet you and welcomes you to our home," Namjoon translated. "I'm afraid she doesn't speak English anymore; she had a stroke a few years ago and completely forgot how to speak the language."

"That's too bad," Jungkook said. "It's very nice to meet you Bunica."

She smiled a toothless grin and nodded as if she understood, then gestured for Namjoon and leaned toward him as he translated for her.

Jungkook took a seat at the wooden table, which appeared to have been handmade from planks from an old barn, as Jisoo started to prepare dinner and Namjoon reached into a cupboard and pulled out a bottle.

He poured four glasses, and as he handed one to his grandmother her eyes sparkled in anticipation.

"It is pálinka," Namjoon said, "a traditional Hungarian fruit brandy."

He gave a quick salute in his native tongue, welcoming Jungkook to their home, and then the four of them drank. Jungkook shot the contents of his glass and grimaced as the fiery liquid scorched his throat. The three of them laughed as Jungkook coughed uncontrollably.

"You are supposed to sip it!" Namjoon said, as Jungkook shook his head, trying to regain his senses as the warmth from the powerful concoction rippled through him.

As he leaned forward to refill Jungkook’s glass, Jungkook asked, "Do you think your friend, Jisoo, might have ever heard of Hecate Agnes?"

As soon as Jungkook said the name, his grandmother glanced up from her brandy and said, "Ce este sta?"

Namjoon told her what he had said and her face came alive with excitement. She reached across the table to squeeze Jungkook’s hand and started talking rapidly in Romanian. As she spoke, he translated.

"She says that Hecate Agnes is a powerful witch, and a terrible source of retribution. She says that if a woman thinks her husband has been unfaithful, she prays to the witch and tells her to come visit him in his sleep. Of course, if she is wrong the witch will not come. But if the husband has truly been unfaithful, he will never wake again. Hecate Agnes will ride him in his dreams until he is dead."

Jungkook suddenly felt dizzy and wasn't sure if it was from her story or the brandy. He wasn't sure what he had expected to find, but it certainly wasn't anything like what she was describing.

"Does your grandmother know anything else, like where she can be found?"

Namjoon shook his head. "You do not understand. Hecate Agnes is not real. She is a legend...a fable. The story my bunica is telling you is an old wives' tale, designed to keep faithless husbands from straying too far."

Jisoo, who'd been listening to the conversation as she chopped carrots and turnips on the sideboard, joined in. "Yes, a fable! Now I remember where I've heard that name."

Jungkook listened as she explained that she'd read of Hecate Agnes when she was a young girl, in a book of fairy tales and legends, the publisher published the book more than a century earlier. The story of Hecate Agnes that was written had to be long dead.” 

“But the gypsy said I'd find her here, right here in Magura. Maybe there's some other witch nearby who has taken her name?"

"There is no one else by that name," Namjoon said. "I am afraid this gypsy you speak of has sent you on a fool's errand. Perhaps she read the same book that Jisoo did and found the name there?"

Jungkook’s shoulders slumped as he twisted his wedding ring. Had he been a fool to listen to the gypsy's words? Had he raced halfway around the world, only to discover he was chasing a phantom from a storybook?

Namjoon’s grandmother saw him playing with his ring and smiled a toothless smile, cackling with laughter as she babbled.

"She sees you are married," Jisoo said. "She says she hopes you are a good husband, or Hecate Agnes will come and visit you."

Was Jungkook a good husband? His wife was back home on her deathbed and he was in Transylvania clutching at straws, chasing after a fairy tale and foolishly thinking that somehow it could help her. The gypsy who'd appeared at her bedside had made it all sound so believable. Travel to the village of Magura and find the witch Hecate Agnes. Only then will you and your wife be together again.

That was all Jungkook wanted, just to be with her again. To wake up in the morning in their own bed, sleeping on his side with her curled up in front of him. To press his face into her soft hair and lose himself in it, and hear her giggle when his nose tickles her neck and have her try to move away from him, only to have him wrap his arms around her waist and pull her back. And to feel her wrap her arm around his as he held her close, surrendering herself to him as he kissed her softly behind her ear and whisper that she's his, always to have her whisper back forever.

The memory of it filled Jungkook’s senses and sadness overwhelmed him. "I think I'm gonna go to bed."

"You will not eat dinner?" Namjoon asked.

Jungkook shook his head. "I'm not hungry. I'm just tired, really tired."

"Yes, of course. Let me show you to your room and you can get some rest. Tomorrow we will get up early and start the tour. The beauty of the Carpathians will make you forget all about your witch."

Jungkook nodded but he knew there would be no tour. As soon as he was rested he had to get back to the plane. He had been a fool to leave in the first place, a fool to think that there could be any truth in what the gypsy had said. He knew it was desperation that had made him believe, but now he had to make amends. He had to hurry back to his wife's side, even if only to say goodbye.

The room and bed were small, but they were all he needed. Jungkook stripped down to his boxers and t-shirt, crawled under the quilt and closed his eyes as the last rays of the autumn sun faded behind the village's mountain backdrop.

* * *

When Jungkook opened his eyes again the room was dark and the house was silent. He was lying face down on the bed, and it took him a second to realize the quilt that had been covering him was gone. Thinking it must have fallen off while he was sleeping, he groped blindly toward the darkness beside the bed. And that was when he felt it...a chill, an unnatural cold which sent a shiver through him as soon as Jungkook felt its touch. A shiver that unlocked the doors of memory and released a remembrance of the last time he had felt it: the ominous chill that told him a red-haired boy was crouched in the darkness at the foot of his bed, waiting for him to wake up.

Jungkook squeezed his eyes shut, just like he had done when he was little and thought he could wish himself back to sleep. But this time he was praying, praying that this was just a dream he would soon wake up from. As if in answer to his prayers, a nightmarish sound whispered through the dark. The sound of the floorboards creaking as something moved toward him from the foot of the bed.

Jungkook tried to turn his head to look, though terrified of what he might see, but a nameless fear had paralyzed him like an invisible weight pinning him to the bed, stopping him from seeing who -- or what -- was coming. All Jungkook could do was moan, a weak fear-filled moan that pleaded for the thing in the dark to go away and leave him alone. And then he sensed its weight, felt the mattress sink and heard the springs groan as something crawled onto the bed behind him. He felt its hot breath on his neck as an odor like freshly turned earth, tinged with the sweet tang of dead, decaying leaves, filled his nostrils.

Terror filled him as he tried to will himself awake, knowing this had to be a nightmare. And then the thing moved on top of him. He felt its weight press him into the mattress, its skin cold and damp against his fevered flesh as it pinned him down, its long, stringy hair dragging across his shoulder blades as it moved up his body, scraping its long, claw-like fingernails along his side.

Jungkook could sense its mouth opening as it hovered above his neck, and then a ghostly voice hissed in his ear, "Who dreams of me?" Her voice sounded like an echo whispered across the centuries, but he couldn't answer. He couldn't move, let alone talk, as the cool weight of her naked body pressed his deeper into the mattress. Jungkook tried to turn his head, tried to see her face, but he was helpless as she traced her fingernails back down along his hip. And as she did, he became dimly aware of her firm breasts, crushed against his back, and her soft lips as they brushed against his ear. "Who dreams of me?" she whispered again, as her fingernails snuck under the waistband of his boxers and her hand slipped beneath him.

Jungkook tried to answer, but all that escaped him was another moan as her cool hand wrapped around his stiff length. For the first time Jungkook realized how hard he was and heard her sigh in his ear as she slowly stroked her hand back and forth, savoring his size. Jungkook groaned as she tightened her grip and started to jack him even faster, and for a third time she whispered, "Who dreams of me?" But Jungkook still couldn't answer, no matter how desperately he wanted to. All he could do was lie there helplessly, pinned beneath her as she pumped her fist up and down his swollen length. He felt her hot breath on his neck, her breath coming quicker as she stroked him faster, pushing him toward the edge.

He moaned, and with one final effort tried to twist his head around, tried to see her face. But she gently bit his ear, stopping him, the tender flesh trapped between her teeth as she finished what she'd started, her hand a blur on his stiff shaft.

It had been so long since he had been touched like that, and the only touch he had ever known had been his wife's. She was the only woman he had ever been with and as he closed his eyes he imagined it was her caressing him, stroking him, and Jungkook remembered how her hair would smell in the morning as she dangled it in his face, brushing it back and forth and tickling his nose as she tried to wake him up...wake him up.

"Wake up!"

Jungkook sat bolt upright in bed, his wife's voice still echoed in his ears. He was all alone. There was no one else in the room. It had all been a dream.

Jungkook stood up, trying to clear his head as he looked out the window. It was still dark outside, but he could tell it would be dawn soon. And as he stared out into the darkness, he couldn't stop thinking about the dream and how real it seemed. His cock was still painfully stiff, and when he closed his eyes, it seemed as if he could still feel her teeth, biting his ear. Jungkook reached up to touch it and was surprised when it stung. He pulled his hand away and was shocked to see blood. His heart skipped; it hadn't been a dream. Her haunting voice echoed through his memory. Who dreams of me? And then Jungkook remembered Namjoon’s grandmother, warning him that Hecate Agnes would visit him in his dreams. Had the witch he had come here to find found him instead? And if so, where was she now?

Then he heard a noise. A groan, or maybe a moan, faint but growing louder. It was coming from Namjoon’s room down the hall and Jungkook wondered if the creature that had been in his room was there now. Jungkook opened his door and tiptoed down the hall, listening to the noises growing louder. When he reached Namjoon’s door he pressed his ear against it, and heard a steady stream of moans emanating from within. Jungkook rapped lightly on the door and whispered, "Namjoon? Are you okay?"

The room went silent, and then Jungkook heard a thump and a bang on the other side. A moment later the door opened and Namjoon, obviously naked, peeked out from behind. "Yes, my friend, is something wrong?"

Jungkook glanced in the room and blushed with embarrassment as he spotted his neighbor, Jisoo, bare shouldered as she pulled up the blanket and flashed him an apologetic smile from his bed.

"No," Jungkook said, "nothing's wrong."

He glanced back at Jisoo. "I apologize if we woke you. I know it is early, but it is usually best for all if she is headed back home before my bunica wakes up."

"Of course," Jungkook whispered. "I just had this..." His voice trailed off. How could he tell them what had just happened to him or, should he say, what he thought had just happened to him? He apologized for disturbing them and, as he smiled in thanks and shut the door, headed back to his bedroom.

Jungkook lay there awake in his bed, watching the darkness outside slowly lighten as dawn approached. He heard the soft, rhythmic squeaking of bedsprings from Namjoon’s room as he and Jisoo resumed their lovemaking, and the thought of the two of them together made Jungkook’s heart ache even more to be back at his wife's side again. And then he heard a strange sound below, a creaking as the front door downstairs slowly opened. Jungkook crept to the window and looked out. Someone or something was leaving the house. He could barely make it out as the first rays of dawn crawled over the mountains to the east, but he could see the creature was hunched over and draped in a black, funeral shroud.

Now Jungkook knew for sure it hadn't been a dream. The witch had found him just as the gypsy had promised. Jungkook ran down the hall and banged on Namjoon’s door again. He hurried to answer it and he saw Jisoo over his shoulder, wearing a frustrated look as she hid her naked body once more beneath the blankets.

"What is it?" he whispered, his voice tinged with a similar frustration.

"I should have told you before, but...something was in my room earlier."

He narrowed his eyes in disbelief. "What are you talking about? You must have had some kind of nightmare."

"No, I swear, something was in my room! And I just saw it going out the front door."

He glanced back at Jisoo, concern obvious in her eyes as he hurried to pull his pants on. "I knew I forgot to lock the door," he said, and Jungkook moved out of his way as he pushed past him and ran down the hallway.

Jungkook chased after him, following as he ran downstairs shirtless and in his bare feet. The door was still ajar and he raced through it, out into the predawn darkness. Jungkook hurried after him and as he searched in the direction the creature had gone he spotted it, shuffling toward the forest.

"There!" Jungkook hissed, and before he could stop Namjoon he sprinted toward the cloaked figure. He chased after him, their bare feet crunching the frosted grass beneath their feet, and when he reached her he grabbed her shoulder and spun her around.

"Bunica!" he whispered, as the old woman looked between the two of them, blinking in confusion.

She had a black scarf over her head and a black shawl wrapped around her. There was a bundle in her arms and Namjoon took it, opening it to reveal half a loaf of bread and a chunk of sausage inside. Shaking his head, he wrapped it back up and put his arm around her shoulders to steer her back home.

"I am sorry she woke you," he said to Jungkook, as he guided his grandmother back toward the cottage where Jisoo, now dressed, was waiting by the front door.

"But where was she going at this time of the morning?" Jungkook asked. "And what is the food for?"

"Who knows? Probably thinks she was going on a picnic. The stroke she had caused her dementia and she often wanders the hallways at night. She must have wandered into your room and woke you. Again, I am sorry."

"It's fine," Jungkook said, but he knew there was no way this harmless old woman had been his night time visitor.

When they neared the door Jisoo hurried out to wrap a blanket around Namjoon’s grandmother's hunched shoulders. Seeing the bundle of food, she asked her in Romanian where she'd been going. Her answer caught them both by surprise.

"What's wrong?" Jungkook asked.

"Nothing," Namjoon said, as he led his grandmother into the house and went to make some coffee. "It's just...she's confused by what we were talking about yesterday, getting all mixed up."

"What do you mean?"

He glanced at Jungkook and said, "You must remember, the dementia makes her mind play tricks on her. She gets very mixed up."

"I don't understand."

"She said that she was taking the food to the woods...to Hecate Agnes. She said that last night when she was looking out the kitchen window, before she went to bed, she saw a girl that she calls 'the witch's servant', standing at the edge of the woods and watching our house."

Jungkook sat up in surprise. Could that be who'd visited him?

Namjoon saw his reaction and held up a hand to stop him from getting carried away. "Please understand that all of this is only happening in her mind. For instance, she often thinks she hears music outside and insists the band is back, playing on the bandstand, but the bandstand burned down more than seventy years ago. There was no girl at the edge of the woods and there is no witch called Hecate Agnes."

As soon as he spoke her name, the old woman turned toward Jungkook and started chatting animatedly in Romanian.

"What is she saying?" Jungkook asked.

This time Jisoo translated. "She insists that this girl saved her life many years ago and that she still lives in the forest. There is a circle of stones in the woods where she says women leave offerings to Hecate Agnes. She was taking the food there so this girl wouldn't be hungry."

Jungkook turned to Namjoon. "Do you know where these stones are?"

"Please," he said, "these are old wives' tales. None of this is -- "

"Do you know where the stones are?!" Jimgkook shouted.

He took a step back, startled by his outburst. "Yes....yes, I know where they are."

"Then take me there...please." Jungkook tried to calm himself down, and apologized for raising his voice, but he knew there had to be a connection between his visit during the night and the old woman's tale. Time was running out for him and Jungkook knew that, if what the gypsy woman had said was true, this stone circle might be his only hope of locating the witch he had come here to find and save his wife's life.

* * *

An hour later they were on their way. Jisoo was with them and her mother was back at the cottage, taking care of Namjoon’s grandmother.

Namjoon had wanted to proceed with his planned nature tour, but Jungkook insisted he take him to the circle of stones. He led them across the rolling pastures and down into a valley and, as they headed up out of it toward a stand of beech trees, already dressed in resplendent autumn gold, Jungkook realized he was getting the tour anyway. They hiked through the old-growth forest, a mixture of beech, spruce and fir trees, with the massive, jagged limestone ridge of Piatra Craiului towering above them. Autumn had a firm grip on the forest, its colors everywhere, but the cold shadows stretching beneath the canopy warned them that winter would soon be there.

"I wish you could see this place in the spring," Namjoon said, as they wandered into a high alpine meadow and caught the scent of juniper, "the wildflowers are a wonder to behold!"

Jungkook listened as he carried on, a sparkle in his eyes and excitement in his voice as he described the lynx, deer and wild boars that still populated the ancient, unspoiled woodlands around them, one of the last remaining wild spaces in Europe, and told him of the great brown bears and packs of wolves that still roamed free in the more isolated corners of the forest. Jungkook listened as he told him of the strange and mysterious beauty of the ancient forests of Transylvania, a beauty that had inspired the myths and stories of supernatural beings and monsters that were now synonymous with the region. He described lonely forest glades, fit only for fairy folk on moonlit nights; isolated lakes where water sprites dwelled; and deep, mysterious caverns, whose depths were said to harbor hordes of evil spirits.

Jungkook could tell by the smile on his face he was proud of this place, proud of his home, but Jungkook had no time to enjoy the scenery or his stories. "When will we reach the stones?" Jungkook asked.

The smile faded from his face. "I don't know what you think you will find there, my friend, but you will be disappointed if you think you are going to find your witch. I have already told you that my bunica's mind...it plays tricks on her. The girl she swears she saw last night? She told me that the last time she had seen her was nearly seventy years ago. Her mind...it is like a book that has had its pages torn away...she can clearly remember things that happened during the war, but cannot tell you what she had for breakfast. The girl she thinks she saw, even if she ever really did exist, is now nothing more than a memory."

Jungkook swallowed his words hard. He suspected every single one was true. But he had traveled all the way to Transylvania on the slimmest of hopes and there was no way he was giving up now, even if it meant chasing after a witch from a book of fairy tales or a figment from a confused old woman's imagination.

The three of them left the meadow and Namjoon led them deeper into the forest. The trees seemed to grow thicker and the forest seemed to grow quieter. And then they reached the stones. They were no more than a small, semi-circle of broken boulders, none of them more than three feet high, but it was obvious they were a ruin of something that had once stood there long ago. And they were the only ones there.

Namjoon sat on a stone and gave Jungkook a sympathetic smile. "You see? No girl. No witch."

Jungkook nodded as if he had never actually expected to find anyone there, but he knew he was meant to find this place. The small, hidden clearing was covered in a shroud of fallen leaves, and the sweet odor of their decay mixed with the earthy aroma of the clearing to create an eerily familiar smell -- the exact same scent that had accompanied his night time visitor. He was sure she'd been real and he was sure that she'd been here. "What are these stones, some kind of ancient ruins?"

Namjoon nodded. "There are many of them that can be found in Transylvania, but most are far better preserved than these ones."

"Who made them?" Jungkook asked.

"The Romans most likely, it is from them that Transylvania gets its name. In Latin it means, Beyond the Forest. But there are some scholars who insist the ruins are even older, perhaps Dacian."

"Dacian?"

"Yes, the Dacians were the people who once ruled this land. But the Romans came and conquered them, subjugating them for centuries until the Huns arrived and took over." Namjoon replied.

Jungkook listened to him talk, outlining the history of his country and people, as he ran his hand over the worn stones, wondering how they were connected to Hecate Agnes and wondering what to do next. As Jungkook wondered, Jisoo reached into her pack, pulled out some food she'd prepared for the hike, and shared it with Jungkook and Namjoon. Jungkook thanked her and the three of them sat down in the stone circle to eat. Jisoo watched him as he ate and noticed how he kept craning his neck around, watching the woods.

She smiled and said, "You really think you will find your witch out here, don't you?"

"I -- I don't know," Jungkook said. The idea of finding either her or her servant here had seemed a lot more plausible in the dark before dawn than it did now, in the bright mid-morning sunlight. But after the visit he had during the night, which he was still trying to convince himself hadn't been a dream, he was determined to keep hunting.

Jisoo’s thick, dark hair had tumbled down over her shoulder, and she swept it back as she said, "I do not mean to be rude, but can you tell me why you are so anxious to find Hecate Agnes?"

Jungkook leaned back against one of the stones, slowly twisting his wedding ring back and forth. "It's because of my wife, she's...she's in a hospital back home."

Jisoo lowered her head in sympathy. "I am so sorry, is it serious?"

Jungkook nodded. "She had a stroke a few months ago."

"A stroke?" Jisoo asked. "But she must be so young?"

"She is, she's thirty, the same age as I am. But they told me a stroke can strike down people of any age. She's been in a coma ever since, but her condition has been steadily worsening. And now the doctors...they say she doesn't have much longer." Jungkook replied.

Jisoo and Namjoon both glanced at each other and Jungkook could tell they were wondering the same thing: why wasn't he at his wife's side? So he told them.

"It was only days ago that they gave us the bad news. The doctor met with us in her room and told us to prepare for the worst; there was nothing they could do. My mother-in-law nearly fainted and my sister, who'd been there for both of us the whole time, took her outside the hospital to get some air. I was alone in the room with my wife and for the first time in my life I prayed, prayed that there was something I could do to save her. And then the gypsy appeared.” Jungkook spoke evenly. He paused, waiting for interruptions, there was none so he continued. “I'd seen her there before. She worked at the hospital and was one of the women who came in regularly to clean the room. She'd always been friendly and was always asking me if there was anything she could get me. But that day...that day was different. She came in just like usual, but as soon as she took one look toward my wife's bed I knew something was wrong. She backed up into the sink, knocking everything over, and the look on her face was pure terror. I jumped up to help her and then she told me what was wrong, told me why she was looking at my wife's bed like she'd seen a ghost. She said there was a man standing beside my wife, cloaked in darkness with no face, and he was waiting to take her away."

Jisoo gasped and put her hand to her mouth. "Bau-bau?!"

Jungkook blinked at her in confusion, not sure what she meant, but Namjoon shook his head. "She thinks you are talking about Bau-bau, he is what you might call the bogeyman. He is supposed to come at night and take naughty children away to his cave. But I do not think that is who this gypsy meant."

Jungkook nodded in agreement; Jungkook knew exactly who she meant. Jungkook continued: "The gypsy told me this dark man -- who I couldn't see -- was waiting by my wife's bedside, waiting to take her away. And then she grabbed my hands and her words...the way she spoke them...sent a chill through me. It wasn't like she was talking; it was like someone was talking through her. She told me that there was only one way my wife and I would ever be together again. I had to travel to the village of Magura and find the witch Hecate Agnes."

Jisoo shivered as she listened to Jungkook’s tale. "But Hecate Agnes...she is only a folktale."

"So people keep telling me, but last night I...I thought I dreamt of her. And then this morning when your grandmother said that she'd seen her servant, and now these stones. It just feels like everything is leading me toward her."

Namjoon shook his head in disbelief. "Please, my bunica's mind plays tricks on her. And you are hearing and seeing what you want to believe. But believe me -- Hecate Agnes does not exist. She never did. Go home and be with your wife, not only for her but for your family. I do not mean to be harsh, but I think it was foolish to leave her side to chase this gypsy's tale."

Jisoo nodded. "He is right. You can never trust a gypsy."

Jungkook shook his head. Jungkook knew every word the gypsy had said was true because this wasn't the first time he had crossed the dark man's path, and this wasn't the first time he'd come to take someone he had loved away. And as he sat there in that ancient ring of stones, this was the story he told the two of them.

Jungkook’s mother was a strong woman. It wasn't easy moving across an ocean and building a new home for the three of them but she'd done it, and all on her own. She made every sacrifice that life demanded of her and gave them every ounce of her love. So much that, by the time his sister and himself both finally moved out on their own, she was left all alone. For whatever reason she'd never remarried after their father died. She'd loved, but had never fallen in love again. But it didn't seem to bother her. She had her friends and, of course, she had them. But in her mid-fifties Jungkook started to sense a change. She seemed distracted and sometimes even confused. Favorite dishes that she could cook with her eyes closed now had a different taste, their exact recipe no longer etched in her memory. Both his sister and himself noticed but none of them said anything. Even when they started to see other little warnings, signs that she was starting to forget how to do even the simplest tasks correctly. They put it down to age and thought they could just help her, but then something happened that he couldn't help her with.

Jungkook came over to visit her one day and, not realizing he was there, she came tiptoeing out of the kitchen. But not as if she was trying to be quiet, more like she was worried about setting off a landmine. When she saw Jungkook standing in the living room she looked as if she'd seen a ghost, but once he spoke to her and she recognized him, she calmed down. At first she denied it, but he knew that something was wrong and insisted she tell him why she'd been acting so strangely. And when she did, he laughed at first. She said she'd been...seeing things. And when Jungkook asked her what type of things, she said: "Do you see them?"

Jungkook looked around the room in confusion, wondering what she was talking about, and then she told him. She said there were little men running around the room, small men, about six inches tall. Kind of like those troll dolls that used to be popular, naked with fuzzy hair and huge grins on their faces. And that was why she'd been tiptoeing out of the kitchen; she was worried she was going to step on them.

At first him and his sister thought it was funny. His sister would play along, pretending she could see the tiny men too as she tiptoed around the house. They weren't sure what was wrong with their mother. They just thought her mind was playing tricks on her. They had no way of realizing just how unfunny the final trick it had planned for her would be.

One day Jungkook went to visit her and she seemed frightened. Her hair was wild and her clothes looked like she'd been sleeping in them. Wanting her to take a shower, Jungkook tried to pull her up from the couch but she refused to budge. Jungkook thought she was worried about stepping on the tiny men. Then she whispered: "Do you see him?"

That was the first time she told Jungkook about him -- the dark man standing by the bottom of the stairs. She described him as having no face, at least, not one that she could see. But she knew he was watching her, waiting for her. She refused to go anywhere near the stairs, including the bathroom right beside them. And when Jungkook went to stand where she said he was hoping to prove it was all in her imagination, she just stiffened and whispered: "He's standing right beside you...looking at you."

Things were getting worse. Jungkook and his sister knew she couldn't stay in that house. So they moved her to a small apartment in a two-story building near where his wife and himself had just moved in. At first she seemed to be doing better, she told them she wasn't seeing things and they hoped things had changed. But they hadn't.

About a month later a neighbor he had given his cell number to in case of emergency called him. She'd smelled smoke from his mother's apartment, but when she'd gone over and knocked on her door his mother had refused to answer. By the time Jungkook got there, both the firemen and policemen were already there, banging on her door and telling her to open it. But she was on the other side, as smoke poured out of her apartment, screaming for them to go away. They were afraid to smash the door down, knowing she was on the other side, but were getting ready to do just that when Jungkook intervened.

It took a minute before his mother remembered who he was, and when she did she tentatively cracked open the door to let him in. Jungkook held her as the firemen rushed in and put out the fire, which luckily turned out to be just a pot burning away on the stove. The fire was out, but fear still filled his mother's eyes. As she clung to him she finally admitted why she'd been terrified to open the door. She'd peeked out the spyhole and seen who was standing and waiting behind the crowd banging and screaming for her to unlock the door -- the dark man. He'd found her, and now that the door had been opened, his mother refused to ever set foot in that apartment again.

They had been taking her to doctors since her problems had begun, and it was soon after the fire that they finally gave them their diagnosis. She had something they called Lewy body dementia. They told them that the hallucinations were a common symptom of the illness, and told them the prognosis wasn't good. For her own protection they put her in a facility designed to care for people with her disease. And as it got worse, they were forced to put a lock on the door to her room to keep her in. She screamed and cried for them to let her out, and one of the nurses told him it broke her heart not being able to let his mother leave her room. But he knew her terror wasn't because she was trapped in there, it was because she was trapped in there with him.

Her decline was depressingly fast and it was barely a year after they had been forced to put her in there that she passed away. The staff told him they'd done everything they could to make her comfortable and that she'd died alone during the night. But he knew she hadn't been alone, she'd had one last visitor.

When the gypsy told Jungkook about the dark man watching and waiting for his wife he knew exactly who she meant, her description was identical to the one his mother had given him. And Jungkook knew there was no way he was going to just sit idly by and let him take one more person that he loved away from him.

As Jungkook finished his story he touched his cheek and was surprised to find a tear. He hadn't even realized he had been crying. With all the tears he had wept the last three months, he hadn't thought there were any left to shed. Jungkook stood up and followed Namjoon and Jisoo. Both of them were quiet as they headed back to Magura, but there was sympathy in their eyes. Sympathy for his pain, the love he had for his wife obvious, and sympathy for the misguided hope he’d placed in a gypsy's words.

* * *

When they reached Namjoon’s house, Jisoo’s mother was waiting on the porch. "I'm sorry," she said, "I tried to stop her but she wouldn't listen."

They went inside and found Namjoon’s grandmother, on her knees as she searched through old books and photos that were scattered across the floor of the kitchen.

"Bunica, what are you doing?" he cried.

The old woman smiled up at them with her toothless grin and stabbed a gnarled finger at a curled black-and-white photo as she chattered her reply in her native tongue.

Namjoon listened with a stunned expression, and then turned to me. "She says she has found her." He picked up the photo and Jisoo and Jungkook gathered close as they peered at it together. The photo was black and white and showed five scared young Romanian girls, all in their teens, flanked by four men in uniform.

"Are those Nazis?" Jungkook asked.

Namjoon shook his head. "No, they were the Iron Guard, Romania's own Nazis."

His grandmother leaned in and pointed at the girl in the middle, letting them know it was her. And then she pointed at the girl at the far left and told them she was the girl she'd seen at the edge of the forest the night before, the servant of Hecate Agnes.

Jungkook stared at the photo. All of the girls looked so young, so innocent. And the girl she'd pointed to, her face was hidden by her scarf, but her eyes were haunting.

Namjoon asked his grandmother where she'd found the photo and she explained that a friend had given it to her after the war. He'd found it in the offices of the Iron Guard after they'd been destroyed and had recognized her. When he asked her how come she'd never shown it to him before, a sadness washed over her face and, as she turned to stare out the window as if it was a portal through time, tears welled in her eyes. As she told her story, Namjoon translated.

"They came to the village one day, the Iron Guard. They told everyone they were looking for collaborators, but when the only people they rounded up were four teenage girls, the people knew what they were really looking for."

"Four?" Jungkook interrupted. "But there are five girls in the photo."

She nodded as if she'd understood his words, and continued as her grandson translated.

"As they marched the four of us back to their headquarters, a place we all feared, she appeared in our midst. She came out of the forest with a black scarf tightly wrapped around her face and, without a word, stepped into line with us. We had no idea who she was and were amazed the Iron Guard hadn't even seemed to notice her appearance. They took us to the small house they had commandeered and were using as their base and marched us into the cellar. But before they did they forced us to pose for this photo, as a trophy. We had no idea who this strange girl was, as we'd never seen her before. But we were all terrified and had no time to worry about where she'd come from, we were far more afraid of what was about to happen to us at the hands of the Iron Guard. We could hear them upstairs, getting drunk, and she just sat there not saying a word...waiting. And when they finally opened that cellar door, and we knew they were finally coming to get us we all screamed. But not her. She stepped right in front of the four of us, shielding us from them. And when she pulled her scarf aside...the look on the faces of those men...I have never seen a look like that before or since."

"What did she look like?!" Jungkook interrupted, and made Namjoon translate.

His grandmother shook her head wearily. "I do not know. I only saw her eyes...such beautiful eyes...but when she removed her scarf her back was to us. And they took her -- only her -- and left the rest of us in the darkness of the cellar. At first it was quiet upstairs, deathly quiet. And then we heard the most terrible noises. Oh, the screams we heard."

"You heard her screaming?" Jungkook asked.

"Not her. When the sounds finally stopped, one of the girls worked up the courage to go check the cellar door. It was unlocked. We went upstairs and it was terrible, so terrible. There was blood everywhere and the Iron Guard...they were all dead, every single one of them. I tell you, I would not wish their fate on anyone, but those men...they deserved it."

"And the girl?" Jungkook asked. "What happened to the girl?"

She didn't need her grandson to translate; she knew what Jungkook wanted to know. In a hushed whisper, she told them that by the time they'd gone upstairs she was already gone.

"But...what happened?" Jungkook asked Namjoon. "Did the girl grab one of their guns? Did she shoot them?"

He tried to ask his grandmother, but the sparkle had returned to her eyes. She rambled on in Romanian, telling him how Hecate Agnes had answered their prayers and come at her servant's call to punish the bad men. And swore she'd seen the girl -- not a day older than when she'd last seen her seventy years earlier -- watching from the edge of the forest the night before.

"It is impossible," Namjoon said, more to himself than anyone else, "she would be an old woman by now."

But his grandmother continued, shaking her head as if she'd read his mind, and insisted that thanks to the magic of Hecate Agnes the girl was eternally young. And now that she'd seen her again for the first time in more than half a century she had to repay her for what she'd done for her and the other girls. That was why she'd been taking the food to the circle of stones, where she was sure she was waiting for her.

Namjoon didn't even bother telling her that they had been to the stones and hadn't seen any girl. He knew she wouldn't remember if he did. Instead he led her to sit at the table while he prepared dinner and Jisoo picked up the memories scattered across the kitchen floor one by one.

* * *

It felt strange later that night, as Jungkook lay in bed, to turn on his tablet and read a message from his mother-in-law. Jungkook felt as If he was moving farther and farther away from the world of reality and toward the world of fable -- but he still had wireless.

Her e-mail pleaded with him to come back. She thought he had done what he’d done because he didn't know how to deal with everything that had happened. He could picture her tears as she wrote that she didn't know how to deal with it either, but that both of them had to. And she told him that now more than ever his wife -- her daughter -- needed him by her side.

Jungkook apologized for leaving them alone and told her he’d be back as soon as possible. But he knew he couldn't return until he had found who he’d come to find, the witch Hecate Agnes.

Namjoon had pulled him aside after dinner and told him not to put any weight in his grandmother's words. He told Jungkook how her stroke had erased parts of her memory, and how her imagination now filled in the blanks. He said there probably had been a girl, and he believed that something terrible had happened in that house. But he did not believe it was anything supernatural, just one more of the many horrors of the Second World War had spawned. He reminded Jungkook that there was no such thing as vampires, werewolves or ghosts. And he insisted there was no such thing as witches either, no matter what Jungkook wanted to believe. 

But Jungkook knew the next morning he’d be returning to the circle of stones, and he didn't plan on coming back until he had found the witch or her servant. And as he lay back and closed his eyes, Jungkook imagined a girl with haunting eyes waiting at the edge of the woods, watching, and a dark man beside his wife's bed, waiting and watching her too.

* * *

When Jungkook opened his eyes the bedroom was dark. The room was unnaturally cold and shivering, Jungkook turned toward the window to see if it was open.

She was standing there, the girl from the photo, looking as if she'd stepped directly from it and into his room. Standing in the shadows with her black shawl wrapped around her shoulders and a black scarf wound around her face, watching him with the same haunting eyes.

"Who dreams of Hecate Agnes?" she whispered, and the moonlight shone in her silvery-gray eyes.

Jungkook tried to answer but the paralysis of the night before had returned and had him in its grip again. He tried to move and felt hidden hands seize him, pinning him to the bed. And for the first time, Jungkook realized he was completely naked.

She stepped from the shadows, letting the moonlight caress her as she approached the bed. He didn't even need to look, but as he tilted his head forward he saw his cock was embarrassingly erect. Her eyes lingered on it and then she shrugged her shoulders and her shawl slipped to the floor. She was completely nude underneath and the full moon highlighted every curve. He couldn't help watching her as she glided forward, her steps a whisper against the floorboards as she knelt on the bed and it signed under her weight.

His gaze slid across the arch of her back and the curve of her breast as she reached out and dragged her fingernail across his pale thighs. He gasped at the sensation and she turned to stare at him with those haunting eyes, her face still hidden behind the scarf wrapped around her like a shroud. "Who dreams of Hecate Agnes?" she whispered again.

He tried to force out an answer, but only a strangled moan escaped his lips. She turned her attention back to the hardness between his thighs and, as she brushed her soft fingertips delicately along his length, his back arched uncontrollably in desire, his body aching for her touch.

She glided onto the bed, sensuously sliding her leg across his as she straddled him. Her hand was between them, caressing him as she watched his eyes. And in the moonlight her pale skin seemed ethereal.

Jungkook knew he had to be dreaming, she kept telling him so, but the dream seemed so real. Her scent filled his senses, a mixture of morning dew and wildflowers. And the feel of her soft, silky skin against his thighs as she slowly rocked her hips back and forth, rubbing her velvety mound against him, was like nothing he’d ever dreamed of.

She leaned forward and pressed her breast against his mouth. His tongue, drawn toward it like a magnet, flicked lightly across her nipple. And as he savored the sweet sensation she leaned close and whispered a third time: "Who dreams of Hecate Agnes?"

Jungkook twisted his head away from her breast, fighting to answer her; trying to tell her how desperately he needed to find her mistress. But he’d been rendered mute and was powerless as she sat up, still straddling him, and reached behind her as she guided him to her opening. Once he was in position, she lowered herself and sighed as they became one. The sensation of being inside her seemed so real, yet at the same time so unreal. He’d never felt anything like it. The way her body caressed him as she bounced up and down, her flesh shimmering in the moonlight as she rode his swollen cock, was the stuff of dreams. And as she increased her pace, working toward a crescendo, she reached up and slowly started to unwind her dark scarf.

Her haunting eyes were locked on his, and as Jungkook watched they slowly started to glow with an eerie greenish blue aura. From somewhere deep inside he felt an ancient fear, rising to the surface, warning him to avert his eyes. But he couldn't, her own eyes had already made him their prisoner. He tried to twist his body, tried to turn his face away but she was on top of him, riding him, controlling him.

Mesmerized by those bewitching eyes, unable to look away, Jungkook watched as something spawned in their depths, something sinister. But as she pulled the scarf away the malevolence in her eyes suddenly faded, and became unexpectedly soft. The scarf fell beside the bed and Jungkook was gazing into the dark, brown eyes of the woman he had loved. The witch's servant was gone and his wife was above him, her hands on his chest and a smile on her lips as she rode him. Jungkook went to speak her name but she pressed her finger to his lips to stop him, and then leaned forward and whispered.

Wake up!

Jungkook sat bolt upright in the bed and reached his arm out as if she was still there, as if he could wrap it around her waist and pull her close to him. But she was gone; she'd never been there. It had all been a dream, a painfully real dream. His still stiff cock throbbed and his heart ached as he looked around the room, and realized he was alone.

The house was quiet. Outside the window, the first fragments of dawn were piercing the darkness. Jungkook sat on the edge of the bed unable to forget the dream. He knew it was his wife's face he’d seen but also knew, before the scarf had fallen away, that there was no way that had been her body. And when she'd been riding him...He’d made love to his wife thousands of times, but never like that.

Don't get him wrong, he is not saying his dream lover was better, just different. He could honestly say that his wife is the best lover he has ever had, because she's been the only one. They met in high school and, when the time was right, they were both each other's first. They were married within two years and, in nearly ten years of marriage, neither of them has ever had a desire or a reason to stray.

Jungkook thought when the stroke happened, when she was hospitalized and became comatose and the doctors warned them that there was a significant chance she'd never come out of it, both their family and their friends wondered if he would find someone else. In fact, he thinks they almost hoped for it, seeing his inconsolable grief. But he had never even considered it. Not counting his sister and his mother-in-law, his wife was the only woman in his life, the only woman he had ever wanted in his life, until now.

Jungkook knew the dream had been a message, Hecate Agnes had sent her servant to visit him in his sleep. She knew he was looking for her, and he was determined to find her. He knew now more than ever that the gypsy's words were true, and that once he found the witch he was hunting his wife and himself would finally be together again.

Jungkook went to the window, hoping to see a young girl with haunting eyes watching him from the edge of the woods. No one was there, but he was surprised to see a thin dusting of snow had fallen during the night, the first breath of the winter that was coming. And Jungkook was surprised to see a light. The front door was ajar downstairs and the glow from inside the cottage spilled out onto the snow, creating a bright quadrangle that stretched into the night and pointed toward the woods like an arrow. And in that light Jungkook noticed something else -- footprints.

Jungkook threw his pants on and grabbed his socks and shirt. He hurried past Namjoon’s room, careful not to wake him this time, and tiptoed down the stairs. He pulled on the rest of his clothing, tied his shoes and hurried into the night, following the footprints like a trail of bread crumbs.

It didn't take long to see who'd made them. Namjoon’s grandmother was far ahead of him, shuffling through the dark, skeletal beech trees with a bundle under her arm. Seeing her wrapped in her thick black shawl reminded him that he’d forgotten to bring a jacket, but the morning cold didn't bother him; his entire being was aflame with the hope that she might lead him to the servant of Hecate Agnes.

Jungkook caught up with her easily but made sure to keep his distance as she picked her way through the trees. Eventually, she made her way to the circle of stones. She reverentially laid her package in the center, opening it to reveal a loaf of bread and a half-full bottle of brandy. She spoke a few words in Romanian to the stones around her, bowed in thanks and then went back the way she came, a satisfied smile on her wizened face. She didn't notice him, hidden behind a tree as she passed, and he waited there, shivering in the early morning gloom as the sun rose over the Carpathians and the first daggers of dawn stabbed through the conifers, casting the forest floor in an iridescent glow. The light dusting of snow soon melted and the sounds of the forest waking were all around him, yet still the package sat unclaimed at the center of the stone circle. He had waited more than an hour, the cold numbing his feet as he rubbed his arms and rocked back and forth, cursing himself for not bringing his jacket.

But he stayed there, waiting, watching for the girl, watching for anyone. And then he heard the first gunshot. Jungkook started as it echoed through the trees and a flurry of hidden birds burst from the canopy above him, fleeing to safety. Seconds later, two more shots rang out in quick succession. They came from his right and he peered in that direction, trying to determine how far away they'd been. He was startled to see something crashing through the trees toward him, and ducked back as a huge brown bear lumbered into the clearing. It roared in pain toward the heavens, blood pouring from its snout, and then collapsed in the center of the stone circle like a sacrifice. The bear's eyes were half open and its breath was shallow. Jungkook spotted two gaping wounds in its left shoulder and knew it was dying. He came out of hiding and stepped cautiously toward it, ready to run if it tried to make one last fatal lunge before death came. But the beast, resigned to its fate, barely noticed him.

Jungkook moved closer, awed by the once mighty beast's size and, as its majestic coat rose and fell for the last time, saddened by its demise. Jungkook was stretching his hand out to touch its fur when he heard a faint step behind him. Jungkook wheeled around, expecting to see a young girl with haunting eyes, and was shocked to see a rifle aimed right at his face. He threw his hands up protectively and tried to duck away from where he was aiming. But he stepped nearer, screaming in Romanian as he pressed the cold barrel of the muzzle against his temple.

Jungkook froze with his hands in the air, desperate not to make any movement that might alarm him. "Please, I -- I don't know what you want!" He ignored him as he kept screaming instructions in Romanian and kept the weapon pressed against his skull. As he forced Jungkook to his knees, three more men entered the clearing. "Please," Jungkook said, glancing toward them, "I don't want to cause any trouble. Does anyone speak English or Korean?" No one answered, but one of the men hurried toward the man holding him captive and barked at him angrily as he pushed the rifle away from him. "Thank you," Jungkook said, sighing in relief. He went to stand, but the man who'd helped him turned and placed his hand on his shoulder, letting him know to remain where he was. He spoke calmly to Jungkook in Romanian while the first man stood behind him, glaring at him. "I'm sorry, I don't understand."

He nodded, and then pointed to where he was kneeling. "Stay."

Jungkook stayed there, on his knees with the first man guarding him while the second man went to check on their companions' progress. They were obviously poachers and Jungkook watched their grim handiwork as they used an axe, long knives and a rusted saw to dismember the dead bear, removing his head and his paws first before eviscerating him and slashing through his entrails to get at the precious organs hidden inside. Jungkook looked away, unable to watch the senseless carnage, but looked up again as the man who'd told him to stay returned. He spoke to him in Romanian, but his meaning was clear. He and the other two men who'd been butchering the bear would be leaving with their illegal bounty, but the first man would be staying and guarding him while they were gone.

"Stay," he said, pointing at the ground, and then went to help the other two carry their heavy load.

Jungkook was still on his knees with his hands in the air, not sure if he was allowed to let them down or not. The man guarding him had a smirk on his face as he watched him while his accomplices disappeared through the trees with their bloody bounty. Jungkook wasn't sure if he was guarding him until they returned or if he was just watching him until they were far enough away, in case Jungkook tried to alert the authorities. He just hoped, as he glanced at the mutilated beast in the center of the clearing, that there wasn't a third option. Jungkook’s arms were dead tired from holding them up, and he asked if he could put them down. He answered him by raising his rifle. But then he realized he wasn't aiming at him, he was aiming at someone behind Jungkook.

Jungkook looked back over his shoulder and his heart leapt when he saw her. She looked exactly as she had in the old black and white picture, exactly as she had in his dream -- the servant of Hecate Agnes.

Jungkook had no idea whether it was Namjoon’s grandmother's offering or the appalling butchery in that sacred place that had summoned her, but she was there. She stepped into the clearing with a black shawl wrapped around her and a loosely wound black scarf hiding her face. The poacher barked at her in a low, menacing tone, gesturing with his rifle for her to put her hands up. But she ignored him as she walked toward the carcass of the fallen beast and kneeled beside it, stroking its blood-soaked but still shining coat as if to comfort it. The poacher moved around Jungkook, keeping his gun leveled as he growled orders at her in Romanian. For the first time she seemed to notice him and she stood up, judging him with those haunting eyes. He said something else to her and she shook her head no. He repeated his order again, his gestures making it obvious that he wanted her to remove her scarf, and she shook her head no again. He was becoming more and more agitated, yelling at her as she glared at him defiantly from above her scarf. He suddenly raised his rifle to his shoulder, aiming it at her, and Jungkook leapt to his feet.

"Hey! You got what you wanted. Leave her alone!" Jungkook shouted.

He pivoted, aiming the rifle at Jungkook, and then quickly trained it back on the girl. But not before he had noticed his eyes. Something had changed in them; the menace he had seen earlier had been replaced by a hunger. He suddenly stepped toward the girl, lowering his rifle as he grabbed her scarf and yanked it down. She shrieked as she turned her face to hide it but she was too late, he'd already seen it. His hand had been in the way, blocking his view, but whatever he'd seen had seemed to momentarily stun him. He stared at her, his mouth agape as she spun away and tried to pull her scarf back into place.

Thinking this was Jungkook’s chance he lunged at him, hoping to grab his rifle, but he was too fast. He sidestepped him as he pulled the rifle back and then drove it forward, crunching the butt into the side of his jaw and snapping his head sideways.

Jungkook’s legs buckled beneath him and he crumpled to the ground, and the last thing Jungkook heard before darkness overwhelmed him was the servant of Hecate Agnes, screaming.

* * *

Jungkook wasn’t sure how long he was out, but when he opened his eyes to bright sunlight his head was pounding from the shot he had taken. The clearing was quiet, except for the sound of the flies buzzing around the bear's remains. Jungkook pushed himself to his feet and realized his left hand was sticky with blood, which surprised him because the beast's butchered body was to his right. Jungkook glanced to his left and horror seized him as he realized where the blood had come from. He scrambled backward, overcome with revulsion, and as he tripped and fell back to the floor of the clearing he frantically scrubbed his hand against the grass, trying to wipe the stain away. His heart was pounding in his chest as he looked back to where the poacher lay dead, the rifle he'd used to hammer him unconscious lying beside him. His blood was pooled around his lifeless body like a halo and the sheer volume of it sent a second wave of revulsion through him.

Jungkook staggered to his feet, trying not to retch, and took a step closer to the body, a feast for the flies that buzzed around it. He half expected to see some sort of gunshot wound but quickly realized where the blood had come from. The thick lines of black blood around his mouth, nose, ears and eyes were like a roadmap, showing that was where his life had spilled away, pouring out of him in a torrent and soaking into the earth around him. His eyes were still open and his final horror, as he realized what fate had in store for him, was etched on his face like a funeral mask. Jungkook stared at those lifeless eyes and remembered the last time he had seen them, as he glared at him just before slamming his rifle into his face. And Jungkook remembered the wild, possessed look that had filled them, like he had stepped between a wolf and his prey.

Remembering the girl Jungkook glanced around the clearing, but he already knew she'd be gone. The scene was the same as Namjoon’s grandmother had described when the Iron Guard had come for her years earlier. And he knew that the witch had come once again to protect her servant.

Jungkook looked around the clearing, hoping for some sign of which direction they'd headed in. And that was when he heard voices, coming back toward the stone circle. He knew it had to be the other three poachers returning, and he doubted that when they discovered their dead friend they'd believe his story that he hadn't killed him, a witch had. Jungkook ducked down as he headed for the far side of the clearing, hurrying past the bundle left by Namjoon’s grandmother. The offering was untouched, but blood had soaked through the white cloth and into the bottom of the loaf of bread.

Jungkook ran into the woods knowing that the sane course of action was to return to Magura, both for his own safety and to alert the authorities to the slaughter in the forest. But he knew there was another life that needed saving, more important to him than his own. So he fled deeper into the forest, heading in the direction the girl had appeared from and hoping it would lead him to her mistress.

Behind him, he heard a cry of alarm as the poachers discovered their friend's dead body. Then Jungkook heard a shout and, looking back through the trees, realized they'd spotted him. Jungkook ran, leaping over deadfalls and slapping branches away from his face as he fled higher up the mountain side. He could hear his pursuers behind him. They knew the forest better than he did and he knew it wouldn't be long before they caught up to him.

The route he was following appeared to be more of a game trail than an actual path, and as it led him around the base of a large rock outcrop, temporarily taking him out of their line of sight, Jungkook looked around desperately for a place to hide. He didn’t know how he spotted it, maybe it was luck or maybe it was fate, but he saw a small cave, its mouth almost completely concealed by underbrush.

Jungkook threw himself down headfirst and scrambled blindly through the opening on his belly, desperately hoping he wasn't crawling into a bear den or viper nest. He was barely inside when a voice hissed: "Careful!" Then he felt the floor fall away beneath him.

Jungkook felt hands grasping at him, trying to save him, and as he clutched at them he felt a sleeve and locked his fingers around it. Jungkook held on, hoping to stop his fall, but only succeeded in pulling her down alongside him. They tumbled together through the darkness, her black shawl enveloping him as they slid down the steep rock face until they launched off its bottom lip, plummeting to the depths below. A second later they hit the cave floor with a sickening crunch and he was horrified to realize that it was her body, twisting beneath him as they fell, that had broken his fall.

"Are you okay?!" Jungkook whispered, but she didn't answer him. He put his hand on her breast and leaned close to her mouth to listen; she wasn't breathing.

Panic swept through him. Jungkook knew he’d finally found the girl who could lead him to the witch he had been hunting and somehow, even though it seemed nearly impossible to believe, he’d killed her. Not knowing what else to do, Jungkook clenched his fists together like a mallet and raised them above his head, ready to hammer them down on her chest. And then he panicked again. Was that the right thing to do? Jungkook had zero first aid training; everything he knew had been gleaned from reruns of CSI. He ran episodes through his head, trying to figure out how to help her as he pressed his ear against her breast, listening for a heartbeat.

A faint thump echoed through her chest and Jungkook sat up, having made the decision that she probably needed mouth to mouth. Jungkook couldn't make out her face in the close darkness, so he reached his hand toward the soft skin of her cheek, hoping to guide himself as he leaned close and pressed his lips against hers. But just before he touched her she coughed violently, her back arching as she desperately gasped for air. Sensing the nearness of his hand, she threw her arm up and knocked it away.

"You're okay. You just had a hard fall," Jungkook said, and reached his hand back to comfort her.

But she knocked it away again and hissed at him as she pulled her shawl up around her face and scrambled backwards, trying to get away from me. "Don't look at me!" she cried.

Jungkook hadn't been able to see her face at all in the gloom that enveloped them, but as his eyes adjusted to the darkness he could just make out her silvery-gray eyes as they watched him from above her dark shawl.

"Don't look at me!" she cried again, and turned her face to hide it from him.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you." Jungkook moved toward her on his hands and knees, hoping to calm her. Then they heard voices from outside.

They both looked toward the mouth of the cave far above them, and listened as the poachers who'd been pursuing him passed it. A sense of relief filled him as their voices turned faint and faded into the distance. When they were gone Jungkook turned to look back at her, and she pulled her shawl tighter around her face and ducked away again from him. Jungkook could see her more clearly now. She looked to be a girl barely out of her teens, and without her scarf around her head he could see she had thick, dark hair that tumbled down around her shoulders.

"Please...don't look at me," she whispered.

Jungkook cast his eyes downward, trying not to alarm her, and said, "You have to help me. I need you to take me to Hecate Agnes."

She glanced at him, her eyes flashing. And then she turned away again, staring into darkness as she whispered, "I know no one by that name."

"Please, I know that you know her," Jungkook said, as he crawled on his hands and knees toward her. "You have to take me to her. I need her help." Seeing her fallen scarf lying to his right, he picked it up and went to hand it to her.

She shrunk back from him, pulling her feet toward her as she pressed herself against the cold cave wall. "There is no Hecate Agnes. She is only a legend!"

Jungkook tossed the scarf toward her feet, held his hands up to show he meant her no harm and, as she'd requested, kept his eyes turned away. "Please, I know that you serve the witch and her magic protects you. There's an old woman in the village who told me so. You saved her life more than seventy years ago, yet you haven't aged a day since."

A silence answered him, and he cautiously lifted his eyes and saw her watching him over her black scarf as she wound it back around her head. “Even if Hecate Agnes did exist," she said, "I couldn't take you to her. You've trapped both of us at the bottom of this cave."

Jungkook stood up and turned away from her, staring up the steep rock face toward the mouth of the cave far above. "No, I'll get us out of here. Don't be afraid. There has to be a way."

Jungkook moved along the wall, searching the smooth stone for handholds. But there were none and, further complicating things, Jungkook discovered the cold of the cavern had turned the tiny rivulets of groundwater trickling down the stone face into icy veins.

"You are wasting your time," she said. "We will never be able to get back to the top."

Jungkook shook his head. "No, there has to be a way...maybe if you stand on my shoulders." But he knew as soon as he spoke the words that there was no way she'd be able to reach the top of the rock face. And even if she could, there was little chance she'd be able to climb the rest of the way back up the steep slope toward the cave mouth without sliding back down. Jungkook turned and desperately searched around the cave they were trapped in for another way out, but found none. As panic started to creep in, Jungkook screamed toward the opening above for help and waited as his words echoed hopelessly off the walls surrounding them.

"You fool!" she hissed. "No one will hear you unless it is the poachers returning. And you know what they will do if they find us."

An image of their dead friend flashed through his mind. "But she was there," Jungkook said, "back at the camp. He attacked you and Hecate Agnes came and saved you."

She laughed. "You do not know what you speak of."

"No! I do know! I saw what happened back there. It was the same thing that happened seventy years ago with the Iron Guard. I know your witch saved you then and she saved you today. So why can't you just summon her to have her save us now?"

She laughed again, this time even more bitterly. "Is that what you really believe? That a witch swooped in and killed those men? And what do you think will happen now, that she will fly down here on her broom and rescue both of us?"

Jungkook blinked in confusion, unsure how to reply. Finally, He said, "Yes, I do believe that...well, part of it at least. And I believe that she can save my wife too."

"Your wife? What does your wife have to do with this?"

"That's why I'm here. That's why I came to Transylvania...to Magura...to find your mistress. My wife is dying, but a gypsy told me that Hecate Agnes could save her."

A silence filled the cold cavern as the girl watched him, her eyes unreadable. When she broke it, she said, "You are right, the witch you seek does exist. But the gypsy was wrong; Hecate Agnes cannot save anyone. The only thing she ever brings is death, not life."

Jungkook refused to believe her; everything else the gypsy had told him had been true. He fell on his knees in front of the girl, his teeth starting to chatter from the cold of the cave as he pleaded with her. "Please, I need to talk to her. She knows I'm looking for her. She's even visited me in my dreams."

She scoffed. "You have not dreamt of Hecate Agnes. Only those who desire her dream of the witch."

"No, it's true. She came to me in my dreams twice!"

"Then tell me, what did she look like?"

Jungkook went to answer, but then he remembered. "No...wait, it was you. You were the one who visited me in my dreams."

Her eyes went wide with surprise, and she whispered, "How could you dream of me when you have never even seen me before today?"

"I have seen you, in an old black and white photo."

"Any photograph with me in it is a dangerous thing. You must promise me if you ever see it again that you will destroy it!" As Jungkook nodded his agreement, she said, "You are fortunate to have woken from that dream. Tell me, did you see my face?"

"Yes...I mean, no...I saw my wife's face. When you removed your scarf I saw my wife's face."

She turned away from him, staring into the darkness. "There are few men who have ever seen anything other than their own death when that scarf was removed. Your wife's love for you must be very strong if it is her face that you saw."

"It is, and so is my love for her. That's why I need to find Hecate Agnes-- to save her."

She eyed him thoughtfully as Jungkook kneeled before her, shivering in the icy darkness of that hidden cavern. "How can I save her," she said, "when I can't even save you?"

It took Jungkook a moment to register what she was telling him, and when he did, it took him even longer to believe it. He’d expected the witch he was seeking to be some powerful, ancient crone, not an innocent young girl with haunting eyes. "You mean...you're Hecate Agnes?"

She bowed her head and hid her face. "Do not call me by that name, it haunts me. I am simply Agnes."

"But if you're really her...I mean, really a witch...isn't there some kind of spell you can cast to get us out of here?"

"I am the woman you've been seeking, but I am no witch. And there is no magic I can do to save either you or your wife from your fates."

"But there has to be!" Jungkook said, refusing to accept what she was saying. He grabbed her wrist, determined to make her listen to him, and gasped as a searing sensation fired through his veins like an electric jolt while her eyes flared with an ominous greenish blue glow.

"Do not touch me!" she cried, with a hiss in her voice like a cauldron boiling over onto hot coals as she tore her wrist free and scrambled away.

The bone-numbing cold that had taken hold of him in that dark cavern seemed to melt away, consumed by the heat firing through him. All he could think of was that soft shawl and how it seemed to hug her body, her lithe, warm body. And a sudden urge to tear it away, to have her naked and pinned against the cold stone floor as he fucked her hard nearly overcame him. He shook his head, forcing the disturbing vision from his mind. And he thought of his wife, knowing he couldn't risk losing the only chance he had to be with her again. Jungkook turned toward the girl, whose eyes were once again silvery-gray as they watched him fearfully from above her shawl, like she'd read his mind and knew the dark thoughts that lurked there.

"That you can resist the touch of my skin for even a moment proves how strong your love for your wife truly is," she said, with awe in her voice.

"It is. That's why I need your help. The gypsy who sent me here told me that, if I found you, my wife and I would finally be together again." Jungkook spoke.

She sadly shook her head. "I would help you if I could, but I can't. It is true what I told you before, I am not a witch. I have no magic."

"But just now...when I touched your skin..."

"That is not magic," she spat, "that is the curse."

"I -- I don't understand."

"Long ago a powerful witch put a curse on me to make all men desire me, but any man who acts on that desire will be destroyed." Agnes spoke. 

"You mean like back at the clearing...is that what happened?"

She nodded slowly, as if the memory of it still weighed on her.

"Then maybe this other witch...maybe she's the one the gypsy meant. Maybe you're supposed to take me to her?"

Hecate Agnes looked at him sadly. "The witch who cursed me is thankfully long gone from this world, but even if she wasn't we still wouldn't be able to get to her. You don't seem to understand that we are trapped in this cave. And I fear what will become of you when the cold of the night comes."

Jungkook was starting to understand what she meant. The eerie warmth from touching her skin had faded and a bone-numbing cold had returned to take its place. He squatted in the center of the cave, hunching himself into a ball as he slipped his arms inside his shirt, hugging himself to keep warm while his teeth chattered uncontrollably. A weak sunlight penetrated the cave, partially dispelling the gloom, but none of its heat reached them.

"I am sorry I cannot help you," Hecate Agnes whispered.

Shivering, Jungkook said, "Maybe we should huddle together, to keep each other warm."

She quickly shook her head. "You must not come near me. You were lucky to resist the witch's curse the first time. You won't be able to resist it a second time."

Jungkook understood, but his body ached at the memory of her warmth, and yearned to feel it again. Trying to shake the desire from his mind, He closed his eyes and thought of his wife. Jungkook tried to picture her beneath the blankets with him , keeping him warm. But the only image that came to his mind was one of her lying cold and lifeless in a hospital bed. Jungkook opened his eyes and knew he had to do something, anything, to stop that from becoming a reality. Jungkook stood and stomped his feet, trying to keep warm. And as he did, tried to remember everything the gypsy had said, worried that he’d somehow left something out. Jungkook said, "The gypsy told me there's a dark man near my wife, watching her, waiting for her."

Jungkook couldn't see her mouth, but he could tell by her eyes that Hecate Agnes smiled. "I know that dark man well. I cannot tell you how many nights I have longed for him to come for me. Unfortunately, he is the one man who is immune to the witch's curse and its siren call. Do not be afraid for your wife, when he takes her he will be gentle."

Jungkook shook his head as tears welled in his eyes. He was afraid. Afraid of never hearing his wife whisper her love in his ear again, afraid of not feeling the touch of her lips one more time. In that lonely cavern, the pain of her absence felt a thousand times worse than the cold.

Sensing his sorrow, she whispered, "I wish there was a way I could bring the two of you together again like the gypsy said. Many of her folk have the gift of sight, but I am afraid she was mistaken when she told you it was within my power." She sat up, took off her shawl, and threw it toward him. "Wear this. It is not much, but it may help to fight off the cold."

"But you need to keep warm too," Jungkook said, shivering as he bent to pick it up.

She shook her head as she leaned back against the walls, her pale arms bare in her short-sleeved black dress. "The cold of this cave is nothing to one such as I. Put the shawl on."

As Jungkook wrapped it around his shoulders he couldn't help wondering at the girl in front of him. She seemed so young, but her voice carried the weight of untold years.

"How old are you?" Jungkook asked.

She arched an eyebrow. "How old do you think I am?"

Jungkook remembered the book Jisoo had told him of, stories more than a century old. "I don't know...one hundred...maybe two hundred?"

"A good guess, but my age is measured in centuries, not years. Do you wish to hear my story?"

Jungkook nodded, anxious for anything that could distract him from the cold.

She looked up toward the shadows at the mouth of the cave, like she was looking back through the shadows of time, and began. "I was born when the Roman Empire still ruled, even though it had already started its slow decline. This land was known as Dacia back then and, even though there were still Roman outposts, most of their legions had already retreated to the crumbling ruins of their empire. My father was a powerful lord and history called our people the Ostrogoths. A Roman soldier came one day to visit my family, so long ago that I can no longer remember his name. But he captured my heart and secretly made me his lover, promising me he would take me back to Rome with him...But I did not know he already had another lover. A mysterious woman he'd met while stationed on the Dacian frontier, one that was in truth a Thracian witch. And she really was a witch, nothing like the kind found in children's storybooks. She was one with an ancient magic that no longer walks this earth, except through the curse she burdened me with….She came to me in the night and accused me of stealing her lover away. She called me a temptress and, as punishment, cursed me. She swore that every man who saw my face or touched my skin would desire me, but promised that any man unfortunate enough to act on that desire would soon be dead.” She paused but continued on, "Fittingly, the first victim of her curse was the lover who had spurned her, my Roman soldier. I pleaded with him not to touch me; I knew it was dangerous. But he couldn't control himself, her spell was too powerful and I watched his life bleed out in front of me as she took her revenge. Soon I realized that every man wanted me, even the ones who had been friends or family. One sight of my face drove them mad with lust, drove them to their doom. I fled to the north with my clothes torn and my body bruised, away from my home, away from my people, staying to the woods and hiding my face. I lived there, far from the hunger that fills the hearts of all men, waiting for old age to come. But then I realized that the witch's curse wasn't done with me, she wouldn't allow me to simply grow old and die. The women who encountered me in the woods started to notice I'd never aged while they had, and whispered that I was a strigoi."

"A what?" Jungkook asked.

"The strigoi are ancient creatures from Dacian mythology, evil spirits whose actions made them unworthy of entering the kingdom of Zalmoxis, the god of my people. Immortal creatures that legend eventually transformed into the bloodthirsty creatures you call vampires. It didn't help my denials when any man unfortunate enough to cross my path was found dead in a pool of his own blood. I was forced to flee even further north to where I wasn't known, always trying to keep myself hidden. But eventually I was discovered. The Romans had left our land by that time but a new master had come to subjugate our people. His soldiers swept me up with a crowd of other young girls and took me to his fortress. They called him Attila."

"Attila the Hun?!" Jungkook exclaimed in disbelief.

"Yes, it was a Hun patrol that had captured me. They took me to his wooden palace beyond the Danube to be one of his concubines. Luckily, I'd kept my face covered and they didn't even think to try to remove my veil, their fear of their overlord obviously outweighing their curiosity. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for their master. When I was taken to his tent he ordered me to remove my veil, told me I was to be one of his wives. I pleaded with him not to look at me, begged him not to touch me, but he wouldn't listen. When they found him the next morning with his life bled out of him I had already fled back to the hills, just a footnote in history. I cannot tell you how many winters I lied naked in the snow, praying for the cold to steal my life away. And when the wolves would come and circle me, snarling, I would crawl toward them, offering my flesh to satisfy their hunger. But even they feared the witch's curse, and would eventually howl and slink away. I have thrown myself from the highest peaks of the Carpathians, shattering my bones on the rocks below, but even then the dark man turned his back to me and I would awake with my bones knitted together again, my flesh new."

"But why would you want to die?" Jungkook said, as an unbidden image of his wife on her deathbed flashed in front of him. "To live forever, isn't that what everybody wants?"

She shook her head sadly. "Think of the pain you feel knowing the one you love will soon die. I have felt that pain a thousand fold. And what did the future hold for me? I couldn't go down amongst the people; the men would have fallen on me like a pack of hounds. For more than a millennium I hid in these mountains, watching the world I could never be part of change around me. I saw the Mongols come and then the Turks, and felt the pain they caused my people while I hid in the hills, wishing I could help. So I took my knowledge of herbs, some of it ancient and some of it learned, and tried to share it. The women of the villages came to respect me as a great healer and would come to me when they needed help. During the plague, the knowledge I shared saved many. But when the plague was over the men needed someone to blame, so they blamed the witches. And of course, I had to be a witch. What other explanation could there be? They hunted me through the woods until they caught me. And when they did they burned me, or at least they tried to. The legends surrounding my supposedly supernatural powers convinced them to wisely leave my veil on, but imagine their terror when the flames burned it away. And the men who had condemned me to die a fiery death condemned themselves instead, consumed by desire as they rushed into the fire, desperate to be with me. I can still see the horror in their widows' eyes as they stood around the smoldering remains of the pyre the next morning, weeping for their men, and watched me crawl out naked from beneath that pile of charred sticks and bones, alive and unharmed. That was the day the legend of Hecate Agnes was born.” She paused again, waiting for interruptions but there was none. So she continued, "I retreated back to the safety of my Carpathian home and dwelled there far from the superstitions of men. There was the odd hunter or shepherd who was unlucky enough to cross my path, but most knew enough of my legend that they quickly turned back the way they'd come and fled for their lives. And, of course, there were evil men I encountered too, but I felt no guilt when the curse struck them down. And while I walked the woods women would still seek me out, leaving offerings at the ancient stone circle with notes begging me to lead their wayward husbands home or punish them if necessary. But there were other women too, ones who still recognized my 'witchcraft' as a healing art and would seek me out, hoping I would share my knowledge. I remember one in particular, a handmaid of a countess named Bathory. Have you heard this name before?"

When Jungkook shook his head no, she continued. "Her husband, the count, had a mysterious illness that none of his court physicians could cure. Desperate, the countess sent her handmaid, Annie, to seek me out. She'd been warned I was a witch, but she'd also heard of my skill as a healer. I was reluctant at first; it had been many years since I had lived amongst people. But Annie’s devotion and a lingering desire to see how the world had changed since I'd turned my back on it finally swayed me. I warned her in advance that any man who dared to lay eyes on me would meet his doom, so she spirited me back to the castle, hiding me inside a coffin that everyone assumed was meant for the dying count. Once inside the walls, I stayed hidden in Annie’s private quarters and taught her everything I knew. But even that wasn't enough to save her master. I should have returned to the woods, but Annie begged me to stay. Tragically, I agreed. What I did not know then was that it was more than my healing powers that had driven the countess to seek me out. She'd heard tales of Hecate Agnes since she was a child, including ones that said I never grew old. And when she saw me, saw how youthful I was, she knew the tales were true. She came to me after her husband's death and ordered me to share my secret, believing it was witchcraft that kept me young. I tried to deny it but she would not relent…..Fearing the lengths Countess Bathory would go to for the secret of my immortality, I decided to return to my mountain home. Annie agreed, and surprised me by asking me to take her along. I knew that she had fallen in love with me, but I was surprised to find that I'd fallen in love with her too. We agreed to leave at first light and spent our last night in that castle together in her bed. I was nervous when she first touched me, but honestly believed that the witch's curse could only harm men. I have never been so wrong…..I'd forgotten the witch's vow to destroy anyone I loved, and Annie was no exception. Her tongue had barely touched me when the curse surged through me, dooming her. I'll never forget the sound of her wailing, screaming as her life bled out of her. I was still holding her when the doors to the chamber burst open. The first person through was the countess and she screamed for her guards, ordering them to seize me. Knowing I couldn't risk being captured, I leapt out the window from a height that would have killed anyone. They must have been shocked when they searched for but never found my body. I ran back to the woods determined to hide forever, swearing that my curse would not claim any more victims. But I had no idea that the death toll at the castle had just begun. The countess, after discovering me covered in Annie’s virgin blood, was convinced she'd uncovered the secret of my eternal youth. And it horrified me years later when I learned of her sadistic crimes. Heard how she bought young virgins from their peasant families with the promise of a better life, only to make them her victims, bathing in their blood in a misguided attempt to unlock my secret.” It took her a moment to continue, still haunted by the memory. But she continued on. "I heard when they finally discovered the evil things she had done they walled her in alive in a tower in the castle and left her there to rot. But I couldn't take the chance that my curse would claim any more victims. I have stayed hidden in these mountains now for centuries, hoping to simply fade into legend."

Her story had mesmerized Jungkook, but as he stared at her, huddled against the wall, he found it hard to picture her as the witch known as Hecate Agnes. All he saw was the innocent girl who'd made the mistake of falling in love with the wrong man. "Isn't there some way you can break the curse?" He asked.

She nodded. "It is the nature of a curse that the caster must always give the victim a chance to be free of it. And that was where the witch that cursed me was at her shrewdest, she said the curse could only be broken if a man that made love to me still loved me when his life was ended. But what man could possibly love a woman who would bring about his doom?"

Jungkook thought about the poacher in the woods and the blood-soaked circle around his lifeless corpse. And as he remembered the look of terror on his face he knew she was right -- the curse would never be broken. He’d been so absorbed in her tale that he had almost forgotten about the cold. He was glad that he had stopped shivering, but when he tried to stand he stumbled sideways and ended up sprawled across the cave floor. As he lay on the cold stone, wishing he could just go to sleep and wake up warm, Jungkook mumbled, "It's so cold in here..."

Hecate Agnes watched him, concern in her eyes. "Even in ancient times this cave was known as a dangerous, accursed place. There is an unnatural coldness that pervades it, leading many superstitious villagers to believe it is a passage to the underworld. Others claim it is the lair of Bau-bau, and spin tales to keep their children away from here. Whatever the truth, one thing that is certain is all avoid it. That is why I often use it as one of my hiding places...and how I know it will be a long, long time before anyone discovers us here."

The cold had made his thoughts sluggish, but he glanced up at her as her words sunk in and she saw the slow realization in his eyes.

"You must have known that was the only reason I felt I could safely share my deepest secrets with you," she said. "We both know you will never leave this cave alive."

"No...you're wrong," Jungkook mumbled, staggering to his feet. He tried to concentrate, but couldn't seem to make the words come out right. "Out of here...have to...she needs me...my wife needs me."

She shook her head sadly. "It is too late. The cold is already weakening you, slowing your breath, squeezing your heart. I have seen many before you succumb to it. I know how swiftly it can take a man's life."

Jungkook shook his head again, starting to get angry. "No, I won't give up...I won't!" Her shawl had been little protection against the bone-numbing, ever-present cold, and he bitterly cast it aside.

She got down on her hands and knees and started crawling toward him. "Let me warm you," she whispered, and a faint greenish blue glow appeared in her eyes.

Jungkook stumbled backward, his legs were starting to buckle beneath him. "Please, I just want to be with my wife again."

"Don't you see?" she said, still crawling toward him as her eyes glowed even brighter. "I realize now that was why you were sent to find me. The gypsy was right."

"Wh -- what do you mean?"

"She said that if you found me you and your wife would finally be together again. Your only mistake was thinking that she meant in the world of the living."

Jungkook’s eyes went wide with fear as the weight of her words sank in. "No," He mumbled, shaking his head as he tried to think straight. "I won't...not yet."

"Let me help you," she whispered. "Freezing to death is a terrible way to die. Let me take away your pain."

"No," Jungkook whimpered, trying to back away from her.

"Let me take you to her. No one has walked the paths of the dead more often than I have. I promise you, journey with me there and you and your wife will finally be together again."

Jungkook looked up at her, tears flowing across his numb, half-frozen cheeks, and whispered, "That's all I want...just to be with her again."

"Then make love to me," she said, and brushed her hand against his cheek to wipe away his tears.

The instant she touched him a supernatural heat surged through his veins, as if her touch had infected him with the same greenish blue flame that now blazed in her eyes. He knew it was the witch's curse and the cold that seemed to have frozen his very soul dissipated, replaced by a burning desire. He grabbed her hand and pressed it against his face, intoxicated by her touch.

"That's it," Hecate Agnes whispered, "do not fight it." As Jungkook watched, unable to look away, she used her other hand to slowly unwind the scarf covering her face.

Jungkook half expected to see something terrible, a vision of death that had claimed innumerable victims. But the visage that greeted him was a tableau of innocence, a young girl just out of her teens with flawless skin and angelic features. Her dark, chestnut hair tumbled down around her shoulders, perfectly framing her heavenly face, while her haunting eyes smoldered with an unholy greenish blue fire. Jungkook couldn't help himself as he pulled her against him, crushing her lips against his as her heat seared through him, burning the memory of her on his soul. And as he squeezed his eyes shut and felt her warm body against him, he couldn't help thinking how much her kiss reminded him of his wife's. And Jungkook imagined that it was her hair he was running his hand through, her back he was caressing.

Hecate Agnes broke the kiss with a gasp and Jungkook opened his eyes to her fiery gaze. "Your love is so strong," she whispered, "it is so beautiful. No one has ever been able to resist the curse like this before. I know you will not be able to hold out for long...and I know you could never love me when your heart so obviously belongs to another...but it has been so long since anyone has held me, has touched me like this. Try to hold on as long as you can." She quickly stood and slid her dark dress down to the floor. Stepping out of it, she stood before him like a work of art, a statue of Venus come to life. But even that pale comparison couldn't capture her true essence, for she possessed the same wild, untamed beauty as her homeland.

A hunger consumed him as he pulled her back down and she gasped as his mouth devoured her breast, her back arching as he tongued her nipple and roughly squeezed her ass.

"Please," she gasped, "it has been so long. Try to hold on."

As Jungkook fumbled with his belt she tore open his shirt, planting passionate kisses on his chest. He kicked his pants off, the cold of the cave forgotten, and as she pulled him down to the floor he felt as if the most powerful drug in the world had him in its hold. His head swam as He fought to keep control, fought the urge to throw her hard to the cave floor and --

"Do not give in!" she whispered, as she pushed Jungkook onto his back and caressed his cheek. "Think of your wife, her love will keep you strong."

Jungkook nodded and squeezed his eyes tightly shut as he tried to picture his wife's face, wanting his last thought to be of her. But he was finding it harder and harder to concentrate as Hecate Agnes slid her leg across his, straddling him like she had in his dream. She guided him between her legs and sighed as he slid slowly inside her tight opening. "Hold on," she moaned.

A roar filled his. ears like an inferno as she rode him, and he could feel the witch's curse hammering at him, trying to break his will. He tried to fight it, painfully biting his lip and keeping his eyes squeezed shut. But it didn't help. He could feel her soft hands on his chest, could feel her warm legs wrapped around him as her ass bounced lightly up and down on his thighs.

And in his mind he imagined he was grabbing that shapely ass with both hands, slamming her up and down on his thick cock. Fucking her as hard as he could, hurting her --

"Hold on! Please, hold on!" she cried.

Jungkook opened his eyes, the spell temporarily broken. She was still on top of him but his hands had moved, apparently of their own volition, to her ass. She threw her head back in ecstasy as he drove her up and down on his swollen shaft, her perfect breasts pushed forward as she savored the feel of her first true lover in more than a millennium.

"By the goddesses," she cried, "it's been so long...it feels so good!"

She smiled down at him and her eyes were like burning greenish blue pools of flame. And as he fell into them He heard a faint voice whispering above the roar, telling him it was time.

Her smile faded. "Hold on!" she cried, but it was too late.

Jungkook twisted around, and she groaned as he slammed her against the cold stone floor. His movements were beyond his control and He heard her whimper in fear as the curse took hold and the beast inside him took over.

It was like he was a prisoner in his own body, watching from within, but he can still remember the primal lust that overwhelmed him as he pinned her wrists above her head and hammered his cock in and out of her. She was writhing beneath him, pain and pleasure etched across her face as she bit her lip, trying to stifle a moan. But what Jungkook remembered most was her eyes. Not how they pleaded with him to try to hang on for just one more delicious moment, but how they'd turned silvery-gray and haunting again. And He knew the witch's curse had won. It didn't hurt when it happened. It just felt like there was a rubber band in his head and someone snapped it. And then it was over.

They say that when you die you're supposed to see a light or loved ones waiting for you, but Jungkook didn't see anything like that. For him there was just emptiness, like he was floating in some kind of limbo. And then he felt a familiar hand in his. Hecate Agnes was beside him.

"Are you dead, too?" He asked, but when he spoke it was like a whisper inside their heads.

"I die every time," she said with a sad smile, "but my curse is that death won't keep me. Where you go I will not be able to follow."

"Then why are you here?"

"Because I made you a promise," she said, and then moved her hand in front of them as if she was pulling back a curtain.

On the other side there were shadows, eerily familiar reminders of the world he had left behind. And as they glided toward them, he realized that they were in a hospital room.

"I told you I would bring you to her," she whispered.

Jungkook looked around the room and felt as if he was in a dream. You were in the hospital bed and he could see his sister and mother-in-law by your bedside, but they were like shadows and he knew that they were the ghosts there.

"Is she dead?" Jungkook asked.

"Not yet, but she soon will be."

Jungkook tried to move close to you, wanting to see your face, but Hecate Agnes held him back. "Wait, she is coming," she whispered.

As Jungkook watched he saw your form start to shimmer and you seemed to change from shadow to solid, from gray to white, as if a veil was being removed. And he saw his mother-in-law stand in alarm, tears streaming down her face as she grasped her daughter's hand and pleaded with her to stay. And Jungkook saw your eyes open, saw you turn to stare at him as if you could see him.

Jungkook squeezed Hecate Agnes’s hand and she turned to him. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Isn't this what you wanted, to be together again?"

"Not this!" Jungkook cried. "I don't want my wife to die!"

But Jungkook knew it was too late. He saw him stepping from the shadows, his long vigil finally over. And as soon as he saw him Jungkook knew he had seen him before. He’d seen him when he'd come to take his father. He’d seen him when he'd come to take his mother. And He’d seen him when he'd tried to take a red-haired little boy who'd refused to go without playing one last time. Jungkook knew the dark man well. He wanted to move. He wanted to stop him. But he didn't know how. And then Hecate Agnes let go of his hand, brushing past him as she glided toward his wife. She reached her just in time and sprawled her body across her, embracing her as she shielded her from the dark man. He hesitated at the sight of her and then slowly backed away, bound to honor the ancient pact he'd made with the witch who cursed her more than a millennium ago. And as he retreated Jungkook watched your form fade from white to gray, from solid to shadow, and saw your mother's tears of joy as she embraced her daughter, once more in the world of the living, as doctors rushed to your bedside.

At that moment his heart filled with a love for Hecate Agnes and what she'd done for his wife, and it was as great as any love He’d ever felt for another. She glided back toward him, and when she reached him she cupped his face in her hands and smiled warmly. "You have to go now. I can go no further. The dark man is waiting for you." As she smiled at Jungkook, she tilted her head, peering into his eyes as if she didn't recognize the love she saw there. And then she felt a hand on her shoulder. She spun around and saw him standing right behind her. The faceless man, dressed in black. She blinked at him in shock, amazed to finally feel his touch after seeking it for so many centuries. Then he embraced her and she gasped, realizing that the curse had finally been broken. Jungkook’s love for her, even after she'd brought about his death, had unwound the witch's evil spell. The dark man turned to go with Hecate Agnes in his arms, and as they went she smiled back at him over his shoulder and Jungkook saw tears of happiness in her eyes. Her long wait was finally over. They disappeared into the darkness, and the shadows of the hospital faded away as if the curtain had fallen back. And Jungkook felt a chill, an unnatural bone-numbing chill.

"Jungkook!" Wake up, Jungkook!"

Jungkook opened his eyes and gasped, the cold air stabbing into his lungs. Namjoon was above him and he saw a sense of relief flooded through him at the realization that he was alive.

"We have to get you out of here, Jungkook! I'm going to climb back up to the top. When I get there I will throw the rope back down, loop it under your arms and I will pull you up. Do you understand?"

Jungkook nodded, but he was finding it hard to concentrate. The cold was so intense that he felt as if his brain had frozen. He watched numbly as Namjoon climbed back up the rope he'd tied to a tree just outside the mouth of the cave. Jungkook couldn't believe he was alive. He felt his face, there was no blood. He looked around the cavern and didn't see Hecate Agnes anywhere. For a second he wondered if it had been real. Maybe he’d fallen into the cave, hit his head and imagined the whole thing. But as Namjoon threw down the rope and he got ready for him to pull him up he felt something under his feet -- a black scarf.

When Jungkook was back in the sunlight Namjoon did first aid on him, warming him. He told Jungkook how he and others from his village had been searching the mountains all day looking for him, sure that he’d followed his grandmother into the woods. He told Jungkook he'd almost given up hope of finding him when something strange happened. He said, "I was heading back to see if the other searchers had found anything when I saw this young girl in a long white dress, like something they used to wear back in Roman times. I called her but she didn't answer, she just beckoned for me to follow her. She led me here and, honestly, I would have never spotted the cave if she hadn't pointed it out and gone inside. But when I followed, you were the only one I saw. There was no one else there. I know this sounds crazy, but...do you believe in ghosts?"

Jungkook would have died, and he did. He just didn't stay dead. He was not sure if it was because they’d broken the witch's curse that had killed him or because the dark man only had room for one more and, honestly, he didn't care. There was only one thing Jungkook wanted.

* * *

Jungkook was back home by the next day and you, finally awoke from your coma, cried tears of joy when you saw him. "My mom told me where you went, said you swore you were going to find a way to wake me up. The doctors still can't figure out what happened. They say it's a miracle."

Jungkook nodded his agreement as he held your hand and stroked your face. "Do you remember anything?"

"I remember thinking I saw you...like you were a ghost...and there was this beautiful girl with you. She held me..."

Jungkook smiled and whispered in your ear, "You're not going to believe the story I've got to tell you."

* * *

You and Jungkook returned to Transylvania the following summer, and now every year you and your husband return to lend your support to Namjoon and Jisoo’s efforts to preserve the ancient forests that were lost, lonely girl's home for so many centuries. She's gone now, but Jungkook knew her spirit lived on. Not only in the hopes of young women who go to the forest to seek Hecate Agnes’s aid to send their wayward lovers back to them, or in the tales of a beautiful specter who guides travelers lost in the woods to safety, but forever in his heart.


End file.
